Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I certainly welcome the Minister's concluding comments. However, I take him up on a point he made in the course of his reply which was that I might take up the matter with local authorities. Is he indicating therefore that different local authorities might adopt a different interpretation as to the imposition of penalties and surcharges or whether there may be a liability? That confusion is the nub of the issue. There does not appear to be a strict reading of the legislation across the board. I refer to a recent statement on the part of a spokeswoman for the Local Government Management Agency, which as the Minister will be aware, administers the collection of the charge for local authorities. She stated that the management agency does not know how many people, who own one property, are liable to the charge as it is enforced by individual local authorities and that there may well be a liability. This is the confusion. Either there is a liability or there is not; likewise, either there is flexibility or there is not.

There is considerable hardship on citizens of this State who have been forced to emigrate to Canada and Australia. In order to meet the mortgage repayments they were forced to enter into an agreement. Perhaps some of them are lucky to get people to enter into a letting arrangement to pay the mortgage while these people had to fend for themselves and their families abroad. I am asking for a common sense approach to apply to those who are not aware of it and who are now facing not only the charge but also considerable interest, surcharges and penalties, which have been accumulating since September 2009 and are imposing significant hardship and difficulty on individuals.

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